The year 2020 has been one for the record books. Not only have we had to learn how to operate in a new normal of schooling and working from home, but we have finally seen the first of the semi-transparent ETF models that were approved in 2019. The launch came in the middle of a volatile market during a pandemic, bringing the total to twelve semi-transparent ETFs representing four of the approved methodologies on the markets. Although the NYSE Actively Managed Solution model is currently being utilized by American Century, it was Natixis Advisors in partnership with NYSE that helped lay the foundation for one of the four proxy portfolio methodologies to be approved in 2019. Recently, we sat down with Nick Elward, SVP, Head of Institutional Product and ETFs of Natixis Investment Managers for a two-part blog.
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With all of the day-to-day rigors of running an investment operation, it is difficult to devote the time to look at your overall operations, but it is important to pause and consider areas to improve and your longer-term future needs. In my role as a product manager, I often hear from wealth management firms that are struggling to optimize their operations and feeling they lack a compass to help them chart the path forward. As one firm representative told me, “We just don’t know what we’re looking for.” I’ve seen hundreds of clients and implementations, and in this post, I share my perspective on some of the key aspects you should consider to grow and optimize your business.
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In their blog post Handwriting OCR Vendor Analysis, Cano AI compared SS&C Vidado’s AI-powered Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software against other top providers in the space. Cano AI, a consulting group focused on discovering and sharing the most cutting-edge automation solutions, filled out a generic medical document containing a variety of short-form and long-form handwritten responses like the ones processed by healthcare and insurance companies. They then submitted this document to all three services and manually analyzed the accuracy rates.
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Between falling fixed-income interest rates and the quest for superior returns via alternative investments, insurers are constantly reevaluating their investment strategies. After the operational dislocation arising from COVID-19, they should also be looking at investment operations to make sure they have the resiliency to support their strategies in a more dynamic market. From talking with insurance industry clients and analysts, we’ve identified five fundamental trends that insurers need to be mindful of as they weigh their operational decisions.
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In our recently released whitepaper, “After the Storm: Charting a New Course through Uncertainty,” we examine the importance of asset managers’ ability to provide products and solutions that are unique and differentiated. This is especially true given that, in the pursuit of goal-oriented outcomes, the market will likely place an even greater emphasis in the coming years on asset allocation at the expense of individual funds and strategies. We emphasize the importance of product, along with culture and business strategy, in the creation of a disruption-resilient business, and we discuss how asset managers should be thinking deeply about how they will work with wealth managers to provide investment ideas that incorporate their intellectual capital in a low return environment that is increasingly cost conscious.
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Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD) is a serious disease that places a heavy burden on affected patients and the healthcare system. Consequently, there are two Pharmacotherapy management measures related to COPD exacerbation for HEDIS Measurement Year 2020 (MY 2020).1 COPD is a group of lung conditions that include emphysema, chronic bronchitis and sometimes asthma. Symptoms of COPD include shortness of breath, cough and sputum production. Exposure to tobacco smoke or air pollutants usually damages the lungs and leads to COPD. Often, COPD patients develop breathing difficulties that become severely worse, known as exacerbations. Serious exacerbations can lead to hospitalization, decreased lung function and possibly death.
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While managing through these challenging times, your business is likely also looking toward the future. With “business as usual” upended, you may be trying to position your firm for whatever comes next while staying ahead of your competitors.
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Despite financial and political risks and the COVID-19 pandemic, the appetite for Infrastructure Investing continues to rise. Increasing population, aging transportation, outdated data centers and the availability of more efficient green technologies highlights the need for infrastructure investment. Healthy infrastructure has a huge impact on global communities’ ability to thrive and for local economies to prosper. While it seems that managers have been successful in raising funds, deployment has been slow for many managers.
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